Netflix drops Saturday DVD shipping

These days, Netflix is best known for its streaming video service and original content that wins it plenty of Emmy Award nominations. But the company’s original business – shipping Blu-ray discs and DVDs to customers via snail mail – is still alive and kicking.

Well, at least five days out of the week. In a clear sign of the times, Netflix isn’t shipping discs on Saturdays anymore, and it’s likely saving money as a result.

Company spokesman Joris Evers tells Engadget that it’s been transitioning in that direction over the past year and ended Saturday processing (usually a low volume day) entirely in early June. Longtime subscribers may remember that originally Netflix was a five day operation, and it only shipped or received DVDs and Blu-ray discs on the weekend over the past five years.

The news first came to light in Movie Fans, a forum devoted to Netflix users. A member there reported that he’d been told of the change by a Netflix customer service rep. The company has not informed its by-mail customers in a formal way, which has some of them miffed:

Cutting Saturday deliveries is more than a 17% reduction in service since the majority of Postal Holidays fall on Mondays. That amounts to a very large price increase and I am disappointed not only that Netflix is cutting service but choice to do it very quietly.

It’s worth noting that, when the U.S. Postal Service was considering dropping Saturday delivery – a plan it later rejected – some analysts speculated such a move would be beneficial to Netflix’s bottom line. Of course, as the DVD business is further de-emphasized, the benefits of going back to five-day shipping lessen.

Although Netflix dropped Saturday shipping at the end of last month, many subscribers may not have noticed. Discs that would have been shipped Saturday now go out Mondays, arriving Tuesday or Wednesday. Monday Movie Night may be shot in some households, but I suspect those are few and far between.

The selection of latest movies is much better via Netflix’s by-mail service. But you could always just an Apple TV, Roku or Amazon Fire TV and start streaming the top movies you want.

Do you still receive DVDs from Netflix? If so, how do you feel about this change? Let us know in the comments.

6 Responses

If everything was available to stream, if you wanted to watch a movie that bad, watch online. Or order a day sooner. You really never know if the disc was supposed to come on a Saturday or gets hung up and comes on Monday. Order the disc on Tuesday if you want it by the weeekend.

I’m still subscribing to streaming, but I just turned off my DVD plan. I was paying $5 for one at a time, two DVDs total per month. It was a great price if I actually had been watching two DVDs per month. I tended to often end up having a DVD sitting for weeks at a time before I’d actually get to it, which meant I was paying more like $5 to $10 to see a single movie. I’m planning on mainly doing rentals through Amazon Instant instead for movies that aren’t on Netflix streaming. Those cost $2.99 for older movies. I can always turn on the DVD plan again in the future if I want to.

We use both streaming and by-mail services. Kids’ shows and some of the serieses are streamed. But all movies that we really want to watch are mailed in BDs. For whatever reason, the streaming quality is never high enough on the TVs. tablets and phones are fine. We try to average one
movie (on BD) a week, but it rarely happens. I think the new plan is not
going to affect our viewing habits.

I’m not too disapointed by this. It won’t make much difference. I still get Netflix-by-mail since it’s the cheapest and most convenient way to watch movies at home. Streaming will have to get to about $2 a movie to compete. I don’t see that happening.

I’ve recently watched four movies via Netflix DVD service that would have cost me a ton more money if I saw them at the theater or streamed them from other sources. A few day’s wait to save literally hundreds of dollars a year is worth it. Face it. There are many movies and TV shows on DVD that are not available via Netflix streaming. Other sources may have them, but that usually mean another expense. Netflix is still the best deal going.

I only subscribe to Netflix disc rentals if there’s at least 2 or more older titles that I can’t get from Redbox and aren’t available via Netflix streaming or amazon prime streaming. It ends up being around 2 or 3 months of the year. This latest change won’t effect me much.